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US designates Kurdish TAK militant group
as terror threat
11.1.2008
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January
11, 2008
WASHINGTON -- The United States announced on
Thursday it has designated a Kurdish militant group
as a terrorism threat to U.S. interests and blocked
its assets.
The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, believed to be linked
to the Turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK
rebels, has claimed responsibility for a series of
bombings in Istanbul. The group is also known as the
Kurdistan Freedom Hawks, or TAK by its Kurdish
acronym.
The U.S. designation, filed Wednesday, is meant to
disrupt alleged terrorists' financial support
network by blocking their assets and the assets of
those thought to be helping them.
Kurdish rebels have been fighting for autonomy in
Turkey's southeast since 1984. More than 37,000
people have died in the violence.
On Tuesday, Turkish President Abdullah Gul met with
President George W. Bush, who said he supported
Turkey's efforts to fight the PKK, calling the group
an enemy to Turkey, Iraq and «to people who want to
live in peace.
Since 1984 PKK
took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly
Kurdish southeast of Turkey. A
large Turkey's Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
The PKK demanded Turkey's recognition of the Kurds'
identity in its constitution and of their language
as a native language along with Turkish in the
country's Kurdish areas,www.ekurd.net
the party also demanded
an end to ethnic discrimination in Turkish laws and
constitution against Kurds, granting them full
political freedoms.
AP
**
Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in
Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan" Southeast
Turkey.
Others estimate over 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
Turkey is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds, a
large Turkey's Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish
alphabet has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and
2003
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan
but unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag
is banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it
is a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey)
wikipedia
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